Professor Yuval Shany from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Faculty of Law has been selected to chair the United Nations Human Rights Committee. While Israelis have served on the committee in the past, Shany is the first Israeli to head the Geneva-based committee.
Not to be confused with the infamously anti-Israel U.N. Human Rights Council, the U.N. Human Rights Committee comprises a panel of experts that monitors member states' compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Shany is a renowned expert in the field of international humanitarian law and human rights. He has served as a member of the U.N. committee since 2013.
"I am very happy members of the U.N. Human Rights Committee have decided to choose me for the position of chairperson," Shany said in a statement.
"Unlike the U.N. Human Rights Council, the Human Rights Committee is a professional, nonpolitical body, which objectively examines the manner in which the countries of the world implement their obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights."
Shany said the committee faces many challenges, "especially in the face of an international environment that does not support human rights as it has done in the past." He said it was his hope that "as chair of the committee, I will be able to advance reforms that will help the committee operate in a more efficient manner, and increase its positive influence on the global reality."
